[69franx]

Go Broncos is a little late. They have had their moment, it's now time for the Clowns. I mean Browns. Go Dawgs!

[blair.streit]

As a side note, for all the football fans out there, hockey is the real physical sport where the players show true heart, toughness, skill, and bravery!

I think you're wrong. Marriage seems to rank way higher on all of those aspects than football, hockey or any other sport I've seen.

[69franx]

Granted, but marriage does not get the exposure or fan base of the NFL, sadly. AFAIK or feel though, hockey players are tougher, and the Stanley is harder to win, than NFL players or the Super Bowl. Just not as much hype. On the same note, I feel MLB needing 162 games plus playoffs to figure out who is the best team, is just a silly money grab. Not making any friends I'm sure, but that's how I see it.

[69franx]

Just a quick heads up for all of the hockey fans on here: Lord Stanley's CUP is coming to Pittsburgh to stay on Thursday night. Penguins win 3-1 tonight to take a 3-1 lead in the best of 7 series against the San Jose Sharks. Here's to the final game being played on Thursday! And for all those non hockey fans, what were you doing tonight? No basketball to watch, tell me you did not miss the Stanley Cup finals for a baseball game?  The Cavs did not lose tonight, maybe they can come back and get into the series tomorrow in Cleveland.

[klickitat jim]

Just a quick heads up for all of the hockey fans on here: Lord Stanley's CUP is coming to Pittsburgh to stay on Thursday night. Penguins win 3-1 tonight to take a 3-1 lead in the best of 7 series against the San Jose Sharks. Here's to the final game being played on Thursday! And for all those non hockey fans, what were you doing tonight? No basketball to watch, tell me you did not miss the Stanley Cup finals for a baseball game?  The Cavs did not lose tonight, maybe they can come back and get into the series tomorrow in Cleveland.

I had a chat with 3 BC harley riders passing through this morning. They are convinced that the Cup will never go back to Canada. Sad deal. But we all agreed that being Canucks fans was good for the soul. Besides, after 60-70 games, its kind of a relief to not have to watch anymore

Edit- originally I put 70-80 games, but lets be real. For us its usually over by 60

[69franx]

Jim, can you imagine the poor baseball fans that have to watch 162 games and then the olayoffs, ending in the World Series to figure out who the best team is? If MLB really wants to fix the game, shorten the season. There is no reason to play that many games except to see who can survive playing 25 games a month or more. Even hockey and NBA seem long at 82 games plus  post season. Not really a huge NFL fan, but I will always root for the Browns, but they have it figured out. 16 games plus playoffs. Even better would be like English Premier League soccer as well as all other countries top flight leagues: play every team twice, best record after 38 games is the best team. Quite simple, really, if not also a longish season

[69franx]

As to the Cup going back to Canada, there is a chance. There is enough $ available from the Canadian market, just need to focus it. Toronto should be huge, but total disappointment for over 20 years. With rumors of league expansion with it set up to make the new teams competitive in the first year through cherry picking the league's best, it could happen sooner than all think. We shall see

[Phil_M]

Jim, can you imagine the poor baseball fans that have to watch 162 games and then the playoffs, ending in the World Series to figure out who the best team is?

We really don't mind.  The NFL season always seems to last about as long as a TV commercial, and the NHL and NBA drag things out by not playing games often enough. I really enjoy having baseball games almost every day throughout the summer, and I don't even get to watch my team. (Not willing to pay for cable, and I'm in the blackout area for the O's on MLB TV.)

[riceral]

Jim, can you imagine the poor baseball fans that have to watch 162 games and then the olayoffs, ending in the World Series to figure out who the best team is? If MLB really wants to fix the game, shorten the season. There is no reason to play that many games except to see who can survive playing 25 games a month or more.

Never happen. The owners won't give up the added income from all those games.

I'm a big baseball fan and I agree the season is way too long.

[reverseapachemaster]

Jim, can you imagine the poor baseball fans that have to watch 162 games and then the olayoffs, ending in the World Series to figure out who the best team is? If MLB really wants to fix the game, shorten the season. There is no reason to play that many games except to see who can survive playing 25 games a month or more. Even hockey and NBA seem long at 82 games plus  post season. Not really a huge NFL fan, but I will always root for the Browns, but they have it figured out. 16 games plus playoffs. Even better would be like English Premier League soccer as well as all other countries top flight leagues: play every team twice, best record after 38 games is the best team. Quite simple, really, if not also a longish season

The number of MLB games is part of why baseball is an accessible sport and tickets can be had for games for less than $20. If the number of games were cut then owners would raise ticket prices and cut out a lot of fans. If major league seasons are reduced then the minor league seasons would be reduced as well and the same price increase would occur. That would dry up a lot of the minor league teams situated in rural areas where people aren't going to pay $20/ticket for an AA team when they can see the local high school play for free.

Also, the number of MLB games have a near religious meaning within baseball. I don't think they could change it even if fans were willing to absorb ticket increases.

[pete b]

I like the length of the baseball season and fact that your team plays almost every day. My son took me, my girlfriend, and his fiancé to a game Sunday at Fenway as an early Father's Day present. He couldn't do that for another major sport I think. The other great thing about regular season baseball is that the worst teams still win about 1/3 of their games and the best only win about 2/3 and the worst team can kill the best on any given day. If the best team plays the worst in any other sport its barely worth watching, maybe excepting hockey where a hot goalie can be a factor. Also, a team has to be legit good to get into the playoffs unlike basketball and hockey.

[Phil_M]

Honestly as far as I'm concerned the only real downside to the length of the baseball season is how tough it is on the players. But, they're being (over?)paid huge sums of money to do so, and there are other rules that could be changed to fix that without shortening the season.

I don't want another NFL-like sport that's over as soon as it starts. I feel like the NFL is trying to cram their brand down my throat while insulting my attention span. Just relax and slow down, I can handle the info. All too often our culture seems to cater to shorter and shorter attention spans. It drives me nuts.

As for ticket prices, I don't understand why anyone pays to go to a football game. The fans can be boorish, it's incredibly expensive, and you can't even always see what's really happening on the field. Baseball is a great sport to watch from the stands. I've heard hockey is the same, but I've never made it to a game to find out for myself.

[69franx]

I understand financially that no teams/owners are willing to give up the money that comes with home dates, but as a fan, it should not take playing you rivals    up to 20 times per season to find out who is the best. Of its only about the fans enjoying the game, minor league is where it's at financially for me as fan. I remember watching Jim Thome and other Tribe greats playing down with the Akron Canton Indians back in the mid to late 80's I think. Let me tell you, they were playing some ball down there. Totally worth every penny, and at half the ticket and concession prices of the old Municipal  Stadium prices. And don't even get me thinking about current prices at The Jake (can't wrap my mind around calling it Progressive Field) The only games I went to in the last 10 years I was in Cleveland were on someone else's dime. Frequent comp tickets from the restaurant ownership and various vendors made for a great day at the ball park. I do agree that there is something to be said for seeing a baseball game at the field, but on TV, it's pretty tough to stay engaged for an entire game, at least for me. Anyways, back to my original thought: Lord Stanley's CUP will be in Pittsburgh on Thursday and if the Sharks somehow pull that one out, I will only be about 40 minutes away from the game on Sunday and may have to find a cheap ticket to the game. I went to Detroit for game 2 in 2009 and got $50 standing room only tickets to the game from a gut who won better seats from local radio station at a bar and we bought his tickets: Totally amazing night, unfortunately the Pens lost that game but in the end, they won the Cup in 7 games that year. GO PENS!

[69franx]

The short side of what I am trying  to express is that the point of the regular season is to figure out who is good enough to make the post season and I don't personally feel that you need 162 games to figure that out. Just my opinion, and I know it's not the popular opinion

[pete b]

Honestly as far as I'm concerned the only real downside to the length of the baseball season is how tough it is on the players. But, they're being (over?)paid huge sums of money to do so, and there are other rules that could be changed to fix that without shortening the season.

I don't want another NFL-like sport that's over as soon as it starts. I feel like the NFL is trying to cram their brand down my throat while insulting my attention span. Just relax and slow down, I can handle the info. All too often our culture seems to cater to shorter and shorter attention spans. It drives me nuts.

As for ticket prices, I don't understand why anyone pays to go to a football game. The fans can be boorish, it's incredibly expensive, and you can't even always see what's really happening on the field. Baseball is a great sport to watch from the stands. I've heard hockey is the same, but I've never made it to a game to find out for myself.

I haven't watched a full game on tv for years but the bits and pieces I have seen while visiting someone or at a restaurant tell me that the advertising has gotten out of hand. The NFL is basically one of those Sunday paper magazines that are 90% adds with very little content. I hope the NFL goes out of business. And worse than that is the Super Bowl. Couldn't pay me to watch that crap although that Sunday night is an awesome time to do errands and go out to dinner somewhere with no tv so I guess I do want it to survive.